'A Human Treasure': Europe's Displaced Children between Nationalism and Internationalism

Abstract

In 1948 the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide labelled ‘forcibly transferring children of one group to another group’ enacted ‘with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such‘, a form of genocide. A year later, Vinita A. Lewis, a social worker with the International Refugee Organization (IRO) in Germany, insisted, ‘The lost identity of individual children is the Social Problem of the day on the continent of Europe … Even if his future destiny lies in a country other than that of his origin, he [the displaced child] is entitled to the basic Human Right of full knowledge of his background and origin.’ Children, it seems, enjoyed a ‘human right’ to a nationality after World War II. Where did this strikingly nationalist understanding of human rights come from? And what does post-war activism around displaced children reveal about the broader relationships between nationalism and internationalism in the process of post-war reconstruction?